The Upper Clark Fork and many other Montana rivers are experiencing great hatches of the Mother's Day caddis right now! I recently had such an amazing day on the Upper Clark Fork catching huge, jumping browns with this easy-to-tie fly that I had to share. Like all good patterns, this one can be tied to match any caddis hatch, it is durable, easy to tie, and very effective. The body of this fly also rides in and below the water surface. I have found over the years, that fly patterns that do this are usually more effective at fooling picky, wary, and educated trout.
Hook: Size 14 light wire scud hook
Thread: 6/0 Brown
Body: Medium pearl tinsel
Wing: Darker shade elk hair (for MD caddis)
Thorax: Dark colored CDC used as dubbing
Step 1:
Thread your hook and build a nice underbody.
Step 2:
Tie in the tinsel (approx. 4 in or 10cm) right at the middle of the bend of the hook. Advance your thread to the the front of the hook. Then, wrap the tinsel forward creating a nice, smooth body.
(I forgot to take a picture showing just the body but I'm sure you get the idea.)
Step 3:
Stack some elk hair and tie in just behind the eye of the hook. Cut off the waste and then, tie down the font of the elk hair bunch (unlike how you would for a standard elk hair caddis).
Step 4:
Rip some CDC fibers from a CDC feather and dub them onto your thread.
Step 5:
Wrap a nice little thorax ball.
Step 6:
Tie a small head in front of the thorax, whip finish, and your done!
You don't need to use floatant on this fly because of the CDC and elk hair. After catching a fish, usually a false cast or two gets the fly floating great again.
Also, I'm sure this fly has a given name but I could not find it or info on who originally developed it. Leave a comment if you know either the name or creator.
